Eugene V. Debs Quotes

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• I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Money, Women, Order

  Statement to the Court, delivered 14 [or 18] September 1918, Federal Court of Cleveland, Ohio

  208 Copy quote

• The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Party, Struggle, Class

  "The Socialist Party and the Working Class". Eugene V. Debs' opening speech as Presidential candidate of the Socialist Party in Indianapolis, Indiana, www.marxists.org. September 1, 1904.

  212 Copy quote

• The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Government, Class, Scales

  Eugene V. Debs' anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio (June 16, 1918), as quoted in The Call Magazine, www.marxists.org. 1918.

  182 Copy quote

• I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Choices, Political, Voting

  174 Copy quote

• Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Years, Class, Soul

  Speech at trial, Cleveland, Ohio, 14 Sept. 1918

  180 Copy quote

• The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose - especially their lives.

  Eugene V. Debs

  War, Class, Battle

  Eugene V. Debs' anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio (June 16, 1918), as quoted in The Call Magazine, www.marxists.org. 1918.

  206 Copy quote

• Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Progress, Agitation, Born

  "The Issue". Eugene V. Debs' speech in Girard, Kansas, May 23, 1908.

  53 Copy quote

• Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death?

  Eugene V. Debs

  Brother, Children, Helping Others

  "The Issue". Eugene V. Debs' speech in Girard, Kansas, May 23, 1908.

  151 Copy quote

• What can Labor do for itself? The answer is not difficult. Labor can organize, it can unify; it can consolidate its forces. This done, it can demand and command.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Done, Answers, Demand

  135 Copy quote

• Private appropriation of the Earth’s surface, the natural resources, and the means of life is nothing less a crime than a crime against humanity, but the comparative few who are beneficiaries of this iniquitous social arrangement, far from being viewed as criminals meriting punishment, are the exalted rulers of society, and the people they exploit gladly render them homage and obeisance.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Mean, Punishment, People

  149 Copy quote

• While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Equality, Class, Diversity

  Speech at trial, Cleveland, Ohio, 14 Sept. 1918

  65 Copy quote

• I am not a capitalist soldier; I am a proletarian revolutionist. I do not belong to the regular army of the plutocracy, but to the irregular army of the people. I refuse to obey any command to fight from the ruling class, but I will not wait to be commanded to fight for the working class. I am opposed to every war but one; I am for that war with heart and soul, and that is the world-wide war of social revolution. In that war I am prepared to fight in any way the ruling class may make necessary, even to the barricades.

  Eugene V. Debs

  War, Heart, Fighting

  "In What War Shall I Take Up Arms and Fight?" by Eugene V. Debs, www.marxists.org. September 1915.

  173 Copy quote

• I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Country, Fighting, Countries Of The World

  104 Copy quote

• If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and misrepresentatives of the masses - you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad that I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Glowing, Cities, Would Be

  Eugene V. Debs' anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio (June 16, 1918), as quoted in The Call Magazine, www.marxists.org. 1918.

  161 Copy quote

• The truth has always been dangerous to the rule of the rogue, the exploiter, the robber. So the truth must be supressed.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Rogues, Dangerous, Robbers

  Eugene V. Debs' speech at Nimisilla Park in Canton, Ohio (June 16, 1918), later published in Eugene V. Debs "Debs, His Life, Writings and Speeches: With a Department of Appreciations", 1908.

  56 Copy quote

• They tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing people. That is too much, even for a joke. ... Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder... And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Freedom, War, Self

  133 Copy quote

• I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Business, Land, Want

  "Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches". Book edited by Stephen Marion Reynolds and Bruce Rogers (Life of Eugene V. Debs, p. 71), 1908.

  28 Copy quote

• Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage... I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Freedom, Long, Mind

  "Industrial Unionism". Eugene V. Debs' address at Grand Central Palace in New York (December 10, 1905), later published in Eugene V. Debs "Debs, His Life, Writings and Speeches: With a Department of Appreciations", 1908.

  114 Copy quote

• If it had not been for the discontent of a few fellows who had not been satisfied with their conditions, you would still be living in caves. Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Life, Intelligent, Civilization

  "The Issue". Eugene V. Debs' speech in Girard, Kansas, May 23, 1908.

  18 Copy quote

• Capitalism needs and must have the prison to protect itself from the criminals it has created.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Criminals, Needs, Prison

  75 Copy quote

• Every one of the aristocratic conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false pretense! These... tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers, the "patriots," while the men who have the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victims - they are [called] the disloyalists and traitors. If this be true, I want to take my place side by side with the traitors in this fight.

  Eugene V. Debs

  War, Fighting, Men

  Eugene V. Debs' speech he gave across the street from a jail, where he had just visited three socialists who were in prison for opposing the draft, June 1918.

  55 Copy quote

• The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough. Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization. The time has come to regenerate society - we are on the eve of universal change.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Civilization, Issues, Long

  Eugene V. Debs' open letter to the American Railway Union, as quoted in "Chicago Railway Times", January 1, 1897.

  52 Copy quote

• They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Peace, Military, War

  Eugene V. Debs' anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio (June 16, 1918), as quoted in The Call Magazine, www.marxists.org. 1918.

  46 Copy quote

• You have got to unite in the same labor union and in the same political party and strike and vote together, and the hour you do that, the world is yours.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Party, Political, Together

  "Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches". Book edited by Stephen Marion Reynolds and Bruce Rogers, 1908.

  41 Copy quote

• As a rule, large capitalists are Republicans and small capitalists are Democrats, but workingmen must remember that they are all capitalists, and that the many small ones, like the fewer large ones, are all politically supporting their class interests, and this is always and everywhere the capitalist class.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Class, Remember, Republican

  "Outlook for Socialism in the United States" by Eugene V. Debs in "International Socialist Review", www.marxists.org. September 1900.

  92 Copy quote

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